Obituaries in different newspapers

Sometimes you will find an item in the newspaper for a relative and you found it by doing a search, which will pick up the person’s name in the newspaper or by reading the newspaper page by page and seeing the relatives name but it is not highlighted to be picked up.

[Below is an example of the wrong highlighting: The highlighted text is “Christian Gone To Rest”, not Mrs. D.A. Smith nor Mrs. Lucy Campbell Smith; both of which would have been a better text set to highlight.]

In either case (search or page) you want to capture the item for your files, or create a screen print to put on a family tree or to put on a Find-A-Grave memorial page.

Just because you found the one item does not mean you stop your newspaper search for that person’s name, especially if the item you found does not contain much information.

Sometimes a death notice will be put in the newspaper with a note saying an obituary will follow, so you look for that obituary in the same newspaper or in the following day’s newspaper.

Sometimes a death will be published and in that same newspaper, there will be an obituary for the person.

Sometimes an obituary will be published and in that same newspaper, there will be a funeral item for the person.

I’ve seen many cases like the ones I’ve mentioned above but I never saw a case where I found an obituary on the 25th and a second obit on the 26th followed by a death notice and still another obit for the same person; Lucy Campbell Smith.

I had found the obit in the Aug 25th 1909 newspaper which did not have the person’s name highlighted to be picked up. The highlighted text was “Christian Gone To Rest”, not Mrs. D.A. Smith nor Mrs. Lucy Campbell Smith; both of which would have been a better text set to highlight.

 

I created a screen print of the obit, to put on her Find-A-Grave memorial page, if I found one.

 

 

I did find a memorial page but it already had some newspaper clippings on the page.

On closer inspection, the items on her page were from two different dates, one for Aug 25th 1909 like the one I found and one from Aug 26th 1909.

The items were both labeled “The Ludington Chronicle” and came from the Google News Archive collection.

The Google News Archive collection, as I’ve mentioned on several other blog posts, does not have the correct title on the scanned file. That is the collection title might say “Ludington Daily News” – Aug 25, 1909 but in fact the newspaper is from “The Ludington Chronicle” or “Ludington Record – Appeal”.

In this case (Lucy Campbell Smith), the collection was titled Ludington Daily News for both dates 25th and 26th but the 25th was a newspaper from “The Ludington Chronicle” and the 26th was a newspaper from the “Ludington Record – Appeal”

Since I had the 25th obit and not the 26th item, I went looking for it in the Google News Archive collection.

It took me quite a while to find it as it was not located in an Obituary section but among the other news items on page 3 and on page 8; and neither had been highlighted to be picked up.

 

On page 3 of Aug 26, 1909 we find this:

on page 8 of Aug 26,  1909 we find these two:

and

So, as you have seen above, a person’s death and obituary can be found in many places, on different newspaper or within the same newspaper.

This is the case more often in the older newspapers which had not adopted the use of Obituary sections, and the item(s) is/are reported among all the other local news.

Also, in this Lucy Campbell Smith case, I think several different reporters were filing their stories from different locations in the county and each had a slightly different way of reporting about her death.

As you read the different newspaper items (above), you can see that some have full names of relatives while the others just mention the numbers and not the names.

I would have not had the names of her children, had I not stumbled upon the Find-A-Grave newspaper clip for Lucy Campbell Smith.

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I hope this blog post has helped you understand a little bit more about the Google News Archive collection and why it is important to look for more items even when you think you have found the mother lode.

Thank You.

Jose from Clarkston, Michigan

—–

Text of obit as copied from the various newspaper items.

Lucy Campbell Smith

age 49y 8m 15d

born: 1860

in Lemonville, Canada

died: 18 Aug 1909   Wednesday

at home in Grant township, Michigan

father: not mentioned

mother: not mentioned

spouse: Delvin A  “Dell” Smith

married: 07 Feb 1876

survived:

her husband

four (4) sons:

Arthur Smith – Hamlin

Wallace Smith – Ludington

Chester Smith – at home

Ford Smith – at home

five (5) daughters

Mrs Martha McVicker – Thompsonville

Mrs Eva Volgman – Milwaukee

Mrs Laura Lother – Milwaukee

Mrs Bertha Nephew – Hamlin

Miss Violet Smith – at home

her mother

two (2) sisters

three (3) brothers

13 gchildren

—–

address: Grant township

mother of 13 children,

four preceded her

nine survive

four sons

five daughters

funeral Saturday 21 Aug 1909, Grant

interment: Grant cemetery

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Ludington, Mason, Michigan

Ludington Daily News – Aug 25, 1909

[Ludington Record – Appeal]

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9oJOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oUADAAAAIBAJ&pg=2733%2C935404

——————————-

Ludington Daily News – Aug 26, 1909

[Ludington Record – Appeal]

[there are three (3) separate death and obit items for Lucy in this issue]

pg 3 names children

See to the left of this link:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CndOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mUADAAAAIBAJ&pg=1074%2C978703

pg 8

See to the left of this link:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CndOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mUADAAAAIBAJ&pg=4647%2C1006675

again on pg 8

See to the left and far down from the same link as above:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CndOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mUADAAAAIBAJ&pg=4647%2C1006675

===================================

 

Find A Grave has screen prints

MEMORIAL ID   52518577

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